By Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee

SUSANVILLE – It wasn’t a simple, orderly process, but the federal government’s controversial wild horse roundup started Wednesday in northeastern California with few of the problems that opponents decry as they try to put a stop to the practice.

Roughly 130 horses were herded into pens by a helicopter buzzing in the rugged, high-desert sky near here, and at times it was far from a pretty sight.

The wild animals kicked hard at the steel railings and horse chutes they were driven into and occasionally turned on each other with bared teeth that left some with large patches of skin gone.

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